Awards for Excellence 2009: Russia
Despite turbulent market conditions, Alfa Bank remains the top Russian private bank and continues to post attractive financial numbers on the back of a growing customer base. By the end of the first quarter of 2009, the bank and its subsidiary companies served more than 56,000 corporate and 3.5 million retail customers, up from 51,500 and 2.65 million a year earlier. In 2008, total assets climbed to $27.1 billion, up from $22.7 billion at the end of 2007. Total equity increased to $2.2 billion from $1.9 billion, and operating profit grew to $1.2 billion from $1 billion thanks to strong growth in interest and commission income, which rose 53.7% and 31.9% respectively. The bank also registered a big improvement in its cost-income ratio, which dropped to 36.6% in 2008 from 55.5% in 2007. Although, like the rest of its Russian peer group, the bank had to make substantial loan-loss provisions, after-tax profits in 2008 at $230.1 million were down less than 10% compared with 2007’s $253.5 million figure. As a measure of its importance to the country’s economy, in January this year Alfa Bank was the first private bank in Russia to receive an unsecured subordinated loan from state development bank VEB as part of the Russian government’s support programme for the banking sector.
